Neill Blomkamp Plans District 9 Follow-Up, Alien 5 Dead

In an interview about his new experimental sci-fi shorts studio Oats Studios (more on that here), director Neill Blomkamp tells The Verge that he is planning a District 9 follow-up.

“With District 9, I plan on making another film in that world,” he said when asked if Oats Studios would work on tie-ins to District 9, Elysium or Chappie. “To go back and work with WETA, and make the film would be cool, but anything that pre-exists like that may not be the best fit for whatever we’re trying here.”

Released in August of 2009, District 9 stars Sharlto Copley. It was made for just $30 million and grossed $210.8 million worldwide.

He was also asked whether he is completely done with his Alien 5 concept. “I think it’s totally dead, yes. That would be an accurate assumption at this point. It’s sad. I spent a long time working on that, and I feel like it was really pretty awesome. But politically, the way it’s gone now, and the way that it all is — it’s just not going to live.”

He clarified he was talking about studio politics. “Ridley [Scott] was one of my idols growing up. He’s so talented and he’s made this film that really set me off in a direction. I want to just be as respectful and not go stamping around in this world that he created. I think that if the circumstances were different, and I didn’t feel like I was getting too close to something that he obviously feels a massive personal connection to, that things that may have played out differently. But I did want to be as respectful as possible.”

This echoes what Ridley Scott previously said about the concept. Scott’s own Prometheus sequel and Alien prequel, Alien: Covenant, opened in theaters on May 19 and has earned just $165 million worldwide on a $97 million budget. Prometheus grossed $403 million globally.